Nonprofits in every corner of the United States are interacting at every level with intense social, political, and economic chaos. Unemployment is increasing at record rates and will cause a cascade of other problems even as government budgets are squeezed, foundation assets decline, and individual pocketbooks are strained. This leaves services—services that are provided largely by smallto mid-sized, community-based nonprofits—to the most vulnerable populations at high risk for demise or severe cutbacks. At the same time, a window appears to be opening for smaller, community-based nonprofits to play a more visible and organized role in using their skills, knowledge, and resources to work with residents toward the creation of new social compacts. To respond to this challenging environment in a rapid and well informed way, nonprofits of all sizes and shapes, but especially, the majority which are small or mid-sized, need the connective tissue of infrastructure to, among other things:
- restructure their practices, services, and organizations to fit a resource-scarce environment;
- identify and pursue available resources;
- track important trends in government and communities;
- identify potentially useful innovations in practice, financing, and organizational structure
- occurring elsewhere;
- engage in collective policy development and advocacy.
Excerpt from: Study on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Infrastructure, The Nonprofit Quarterly
